Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg filed a
formal challenge to the 2010 New York City census, saying an
increase in residential vacancy rates in some neighborhoods
indicated they were undercounted.

The Census Bureau should re-evaluate its tally of Bay Ridge
and Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, and Astoria and Jackson Heights in
Queens, Bloomberg said a letter to the bureau released today. A
large number of housing units in those areas were mistakenly
classified as vacant, he said.

The neighborhoods are “among the most stable, growing and
vibrant” in the city, suggesting “some aspect of the census
enumeration went awry,” Bloomberg said.

Census workers counted 8,175,133 people in New York City,
216,748 fewer than it estimated in 2009. The deviation is the
largest of any city estimated. New York’s population could
increase by “tens of thousands” if the errors are corrected,
Bloomberg said.

The U.S. uses the census to allocate more than $400 billion
in federal funds to cities and states each year. At least 48
other municipalities, including Washington, Miami and Dayton,
Ohio, are seeking a review of their results, according to an
Aug. 4 report from the Census Bureau.

The Census Bureau said the Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst areas
had a vacancy rate of 10.6 percent and that it was 7.5 percent
in the Astoria and Jackson Heights neighborhoods, the city said
in its challenge. Those compare with 3.7 percent in the Brooklyn
region and 2.9 percent in the Queens area in the 2000 census.

“What’s here is a report that just doesn’t jive with
reality or the data,” Rachaele Raynoff, a spokeswoman for the
Planning Department, said in a telephone interview. “It’s very
important to get this right.”

The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News
parent Bloomberg LP.